Possibilities of use of the noble metals market in the life insurance

Motivation: The financial crisis of 2008 undermined the trust of many people to the financial markets. During such crises one can observe growing prices and trust among others to tangible assets including noble metals. Noble metals, to which following metals are classed: gold, silver, palladium and platinum, in contrary to current financial instruments (shares, bonds, derivatives, bank deposits) do not generate interests. They are instead one of forms of thesaurisation. Moreover, they constitute (mainly gold) good protection from inflation in contrary to the fiat money. In Poland this market is not very developed yet, but its growing popularity can be already observed. Aim: The main aim of this paper is to analyse the possibilities to use the market of noble metals in the market of life insurances. Results: The insurance companies can potentially use noble metals in typically protective products as well as in saving. Additional aim of this paper is to determine the attitude of people purchasing noble metals to the financial markets (including the insurance industry) and investigating their attitude to risk. For the purpose of the researching part, a survey among people purchasing noble markets was used. Moreover, this group can be potentially most interested in purchasing insurance products based on gold or silver.